I had forgotten to include pictures of the ceiling in our room. The girls when I showed them the first time were very off put by the naked babies on the ceiling and the first time we FaceTimed said "Is that the naked baby place? Do you feel like they're watching you?"
We were up late this morning, I was the first up and about when my alarm went off at 8:30am. I didn't feel like I got a great sleep, but it wasn't terrible either, just awake a few times. I got up to pee in the night and closed the door because the road noise, which is infrequent, is loud. I heard Sarah and Anthony up around 9am and we decided that we would try to go out to grab coffee and pastries for breakfast at around 10am.
Right beside our apartment is a little market, so we got pastries there. Sarah and I waited for the bakery clerk and a little old lady marched up and stood in front of me. That's when I noticed we had to take a number for the bakery. So we got a number and then waited our turn to buy while the guys went to get some fruit for our drive today to Ladispoli, a town on the coast about half way to Sorrento. Beside the market is a coffee shop so we got a coffee and another pastry that looked like it was cinnamon but turned out to be Nutella, they love Nutella here, Jay's chocolate croissant is also a Nutella croissant instead of chocolate.
I couldn't decide if I wanted to focus on the name of the café or the cappuccino. lol.
Sarah said that she was up in the night worrying about the International Drivers Permit, because that was one of the things mentioned when the Polizia pulled us over yesterday, a few people in the car had it (me included thanks to Maria for our trip last year to Greece), and she hadn't had time to go and get hers before we left. She asked what did I think would happen if she were pulled over and didn't have it, would she be arrested? I said I didn't think so, it was probably a fine, but worst case they could leave half their luggage behind and come in our car with us - lol, she doesn't know how to pack light. They have a carry on size rolling bag for toiletries haha!
I was looking for things to do on the way to Ladispoli today, half way points to stop that might be interesting and found an old town that was basically abandoned but had been revitalized with tourism, called Civita di Bagnoregio. Here is a picture of it because we didn't go there.
As we were leaving Siena and I was navigating and Sarah and Anthony were behind us in their car I said to Jay to be somewhat aware that Sarah is following because she isn't the fastest or most aggressive driver (she did great!).
On the way to Civita di Bagnoregio we passed this really cool raised town called Orvieto and I quickly googled it and it has an underground cave system and looked really cool, so as a game day decision we decided to change our "old walled city" to a different old walled city. I knew that Sarah and Anthony wouldn't care, they had said to do whatever we wanted to do, so we are. lol.
Orvieto is a very nice little town. I TripAdvisored a nice restaurant with a view for lunch and we walked up up up to the top of the town to the Duomo and found the restaurant.
We came up to the top and it opens up into the square that holds the Duomo di Orvieto. We'll go in after lunch and look to see about the cave system as well.
We go into Vinosus for lunch, they have a terrace out the side of the building overlooking town and the Duomo.
This Italian beer is delicious, slightly fruity.
We ordered lunch, I had a pasta with tomato sauce and a side of spinach with garlic and chillis.
Its our Anniversary today, 15 years married. Anthony and Sarah bought us lunch. Jay said what day is it? I said Wednesday - Anthony said its "Hump Day and your Anniversary, I'm glad we aren't sharing a place with you tonight!" lol
I said to Sarah, I really wish the sign for Il Gelato wasn't there because that would be a really nice picture! We went back next door to Il Gelato after going into the Duomo. The underground tour didn't start until 4:15pm and it was now 3:00pm so we didn't have time to wait around another hour for a one hour tour, too bad.
That's the terrace we had lunch on.
The cathedral was beautiful, we didn't do a tour so I know nothing about it. As much as I love learning about things I don't like reading plaques so if you don't tell me about it I don't care.
We walked a different way back to the car.
Anthony asked if we wanted a photo together on our Anniversary. I said while we're both texting? He was like 'I'm no photographer, but I think over here would be better'. He was right.
The hotel we're staying at is about a 2 hour drive from here, I tried to get a photo of Orvieto from the car on the way down the road, it never turns out but I always try!
After leaving Orvieto and getting on the highway I asked Anthony to text me some of the photos from the last few days with all of us in them because I didn't have them. Rather than go back in each blog and add them here they are and I'll just tell you when they were :)
The one was at the Fortress in Montalcino.
This was at the first wine tasting at San Guilia.
Our 2 hour drive is fairly uneventful except for a HUGE traffic jam on the opposite side of the highway, it went on for about 14 km where traffic was at a 100% stand still. The people rolling up on it had no idea what they were in for. I said to Jay "What if you had to pee?" He said he'd just get out to pee and he figured eventually I'd get out to pee too. When we were past the last of the cars stopped I texted Anthony.
When we were driving Jay said "Huh, you don't see that every day" and I saw two women at the side of the road, I thought maybe they were begging (it was a 2 lane each way highway but they were at the bottom of an on ramp. They were hookers. "How you do know?" By the way they were dressed. I still thought maybe they weren't but then saw another one on that side and she was wearing a white bra and panties and a completely see through black mess dress. So we called Sarah and Anthony to ask if they saw the hookers and said they should have been back at the traffic jam and they could have car hopped, they would have cleaned up. Sarah said they would have lockjaw by the end! OMG. HaHa.
We've arrived in Ladispoli and on our way to the hotel.
This is a photo from the front of the car.
I made Jay stop so I could take it out the window - no wonder it never looks good taking it while moving! (no filter)
I've never been to a hotel where you have to ring reception to get in before.
The grounds are beautiful and a hostess gives us a tour of the property. Next door is a castle that is privately owned and available only for small functions from time to time.
There was a fire in 1918 which destroyed the original castle, which was called Palo's Castle. American Paul Getty bought the property in 1960, during the restoration of the Castle they found that it was built on the ruins of a large Roman seaside villa from the 4th and 5th Century AD. The findings are held in a museum in the basement of the Hotel.
This is the restaurant where we'll have breakfast tomorrow.
The bar.
The library.
The spa.
Information on the neighbouring castle.
Our room.
Our bathroom door. lol.
Jay smashed his head off the door frame. It’s about 6’3 and he’s 6’4”.
Sarah and Anthony's room is beside ours. I said to him "You're room is right next door to ours, guess you can't be that glad" ;) We have dinner reservations at 8pm so we decide to meet again at 7:30pm ready for dinner and open one of the bottles of Prosecco that were left for us and save the other for another part of our trip.
Anthony came over, but Sarah was still getting ready so we sat and chatted. Anthony told us he got a call to his room and he assumed it was us so he answered "City morgue, you stab 'em we slab 'em" and reception said to him "Mr Corey?" lol. "Yes". "We have an emergency call out from your room?" "We have no emergency..." and Sarah shouts "Oh, that was me! I pulled the cord in the bathroom, I didn't know what it was for, I thought maybe it was to drain the shower". She said she had been out of the shower for 7-8 minutes though at that point so if there was an emergency she would have been dead. lol.
We had a beautiful dinner on the terrace, we shared a bottle of red that was recommended by the sommelier after he reviewed what we had all ordered for dinner. He gave us two price points for different wines, which was nice.
Sarah and I started with the sea scallops with cuddlefish (I didn't know this was squid!), it was amazing, but Jay's poached egg was the best of the apps, very rich and flavourful, it tasted like cheese. Anthony had pig. lol, it was like a little porchetta loaf, but on the menu the translation from what I'm sure was a very eloquent Italian name was Pig.
For dinner Anthony and I had the gnocchi with beef cheek, it was so light and fluffy, the texture were like small balls of mashed potato and they poured a jus overtop, this is actually a secondi, second course, but Sarah and I had this as our main while the boys ordered a main course after. Sarah had sea bass which she said was delicious and Jay had pasta. For the final course Anthony had Amberjack fish (I think), which was like tuna while Jay had duck, which was amazing, it must have been finished in bacon fat or had it poured over while it baked because it tasted like bacon.
The terrace sits on the Mediterranean Sea and Sarah mentioned that she loved the sound of the waves. I said they could open their windows tonight and listen to the waves, but added "maybe just give it 20 minutes...", Anthony laughed and said "20 minutes! Going twice, eh?". We're having such a riot with them. We've never spent any time with Sarah and Anthony just the four of us and its working out really well. You never know if you can travel with someone until you travel with them, so its nice.
The boys ordered dessert, Jay got a strawberry dessert that was bigger than any portion of dinner and Anthony got a huge individual size cheese cake (the size of a bread plate). I ordered Baileys on ice for dessert because none of the others appealed to me. Even though Sarah and I didn't order a main or a dessert they brought a plate to sit in front of us, so when he brought my plate I placed my glass of Bailey's on top in the centre and he laughed.
After dinner we headed up to our room to FaceTime the girls before they had to go to hockey and Sarah and Anthony stayed down in the library to enjoy a glass of wine and call Maddy, Austin and Trey to check in.
We found this nice little touch from the hotel.
We had an excellent stay at La Posta Vecchia, one of those splurges that is once in a lifetime, such a nice way to spend our Anniversary.
memorable time indeed
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